Dealing With Injuries…

Running is my passion, it’s something that I live and breathe for. As melodramatic as it sounds, running is my everything.

Cross country season ended back in November, and as much as I enjoyed running on my own, I missed the goal-oriented, structured manner of being on a team. So I signed myself up for a half marathon, the Manhattan Half Marathon to be exact.

Training was going amazing, I was running further and faster and feeling amazing. Running is one of the only things in this world that can actually make me feel good about myself.

Two weeks ago, on a 10 mile run I began to notice some sharp pain in my arches at around mile 2, luckily the pain dissipated around mile 4 and I finished my 10 miles feeling like I was floating, yeah, that good. 😉

Anyway, the next day I woke up and the very first step that I took caused me to wince in pain. My right foot felt like it was being sliced open. Ignoring the pain (figured it was just soreness) I headed out for my 3 mile recovery run that I had planned on. However, after a block I was forced to turn back. With each stride I took it felt as is the ligament (or muscle?) in my arch was being pulled too tight, it felt as though it would snap. Not wanting to take a risk, I hopped in the car and headed to the gym to do an elliptical workout instead.

The next day I went to my chiropractor (we are very close and she is an expert with the entire human body) with only taking a quick look she determined that the pain in my foot was plantar fasciitis.

It’s been almost three weeks since I was told not to run. It sounds dramatic, but I honestly spent every night crying for a week. Like I said, running is my release, I don’t know how else to get out my stress and anxiety.

So, now onto how to deal with injury. My biggest saving grace was taking the time to try new things. A week into not running I woke up at 6am, and drove my sleepy self to an early morning hot yoga class.

post yoga sweaty face

And I left both happy and sweaty! I purchased a $30 month trial and have gone a couple of times since. Would I have tried it without being injured? Probably. But being injured definitely gave me the extra push.

Another thing that has definitely been focusing on what I CAN do rather than what I CAN’T do. I’ve still been working out every single day as intensely as possible. The elliptical has been my best friend (though I have to say that I’m getting sick of it) I’ve also discovered the stair master. I’ve done a few stair master workouts that I have very much enjoyed!

Finding other outlets and still getting good sweat sessions in has definitely helped me.

I’ve also been very involved in Tone it Up’s Love Your Body challenge! I’ve been a Tone it Up member for almost a year now and I absolutely love them! The challenge is definitely something that you should check out if you haven’t already. It gives weekly plans for workouts and food challenges, offers great advice and awesome motivation. I’m LOVING this challenge! Having the structured workout plans makes e feel more at ease since I had to give up my half marathon training.

So where am I now? I am definitely still suffering with not being able to run. I miss it more than anything. But I have found ways to make it more bearable.

Injuries suck, there’s no arguing that. But it’s not the end of the world. I know that every day that I keep myself from running in favor of letting my foot heel is bringing me one day closer to my next run. Too many times I have kept running on an injury until I had to stop and take off for longer than I would have had to if I had just caught the injury early on.